GSL Season 1 2017 – Quarterfinals

TY vs soO

The first match of the quarters got off to a confusing start, with soO attempting a 12-pool Ravager all-in. 12-pools in general are much more common against Protoss than Terran. After having his all-in held, then being pulled apart from every angle by TY’s multi-pronged aggression in the next game, soO looked minutes away from being the victim of one of the hardest stomps in GSL Quarterfinal history.

Then TY decided to make things weird. He went for, an admittedly intriguing, mech build against soO. Of course, there’s a reason mech isn’t often used against Zerg. And that reason is the Swarm Host. Mech builds are high power, low mobility compositions, and the Swarm host does nothing if not punish low (or lack of) mobility. At the highest echelons of the Zerg tech tree, Brood Lords also excel at devastating stationary positions.

So naturally, it was hardly surprising when TY’s mech build was overwhelmed by soO’s Swarm Host, Brood Lord based army.

Game 4 saw the return of soO’s 12-pool Ravager all-in, and this time on a two player map, TY would be unable to hold.

And just like that. Just as quickly as we were looking at a potential 3-0 stomp, the match was brought to Game 5.

SoO made full use of the open map on Newkirk Precinct. He was repeatedly taking fights in the wide open areas that favor Zerg. SoO was able to keep TY at bay for the majority of the game, eventually overwhelming him. Completing the reverse sweep, soO advanced to the semifinals 3-2.

Stats vs Innovation

Innovation started the Match with two fairly clean wins on Cactus Valley and Newkirk Precinct. In both games, Stats opted for a defensive early Colossi opening. In Game 1, Innovation took a favorable early engagement, trading out his siege tanks for most of Stat’s Gateway army. Pushing out Vikings on the resupply, Stats’ Colossi based army was overwhelmed on the followup attack.

Say it with me: Instant Karma

In Game 2, Innovation took advantage of Newkirk’s terrain to pull Stats’ defense apart with a two-pronged attack. Punishing Stats’ inability to secure map control, the fast followup push almost completely surrounded Stats’ defense at his third, ending the game in a rain of MULEs. This put Stats in a familiar position, having lost 0-4 to Innovation at IEM Gyeonggi, barely two months ago.

On Daybreak, Stats swapped out his defensive Colossi strategy for a mobile Adept-Phoenix build, hitting Innovation with waves of harassment. Taking repeated damage at home and completely unable to respond, Innovation had to attempt a doom drop to get himself back into the game. Anticipating the desperate attack, Stats easily intercepted Innovation’s Medivacs, bringing the hammer down on Game 3. Taking the Adept-Phoenix build back into Game 4, Innovation put up a bit more of a fight. In the end, Stats took full advantage of his superior air mobility to crush Innovation’s main army.

Stats brought back his Colossi build for Game 5. Reading Innovation like a book, he set a row of pylons in anticipation for an incoming doom drop on his main well. He did this before the attack happened, and crushed the attack once it did. After a repeat failed doomdrop into Stats’ main, Stats took the fight to Innovation, ending the game in convincing fashion and completing the reverse sweep.

herO vs sOs

A failed cannon rush by herO brought a quick end to Game 1. Both players started off on relatively even footing going into Game 2, both starting on Phoenixes. After attempting to transition out of Phoenixes, however, herO lost his footing in the game. PvP is always a dangerous matchup to transition in. Very often when you start mirror tech paths, you end up locked into it out of risk of your opponent walking over you with superior numbers.

By transitioning out of Phoenixes, sOs was given free reign of the skies and would use his superior air mobility to bleed out herO’s mineral lines.

Taking advantage of the large four player map for Game 3, herO took a greedy early expansion to secure an early economic lead. Deciding to commit to harassment after having scouted the expansion late would put sOs even further behind and the game would quickly snowball into herO’s first win.

HerO took an early lead in Game 4 on Daybreak with some strong StarGate micro, getting solid economic damage done with an Oracle and several Phoenixes. A well placed Stasis Ward would secure a fight at sOs’ base for herO, and he would close the game a few short minutes later.

The final game on Abyssal Reef was easily the best game of the match. Very back and forth, sOs opened making multiple attempts at adept harassment in herO’s base, trading out for little more than other combat units. HerO would pick off sOs’ Warp Prism and followed up with a push into sOs’ base. SOs’ retaliation would spin the game into his favor, completely wiping out workers at herO’s natural. SOs would corner herO in his attempt at getting retaliatory damage, wiping the rest of his army. This advanced sOs to the semifinals, 3-2.

Who knew, right?

Ryung vs Maru

Many would have assumed that this would have been the most one-sided match of the Quarterfinals, and they weren’t exactly wrong. This was a straight up chess match. Ryung, for the most part, was constantly ahead in the game.

The first two games saw Ryung putting Maru on the defensive while exploiting gaps in his positioning. Ryung is often said to be one of the most hardworking players in the StarCraft professional scene. In the first two games, it really did show. He showed a far more refined understanding of Echo and Whirlwind than Maru. Knowing exactly where to doom drop based on Maru’s positioning. At one point, even playing hide and seek with a cornered, almost dead cyclone to get it out alive. Ryung was in full control of the first two games. At times, he even made Maru, the number one ranked player in the world, look like an amateur.

Maru, however, was able to show much more assertion in Games 3 and 4. On Daybreak, Maru showed off some interesting Raven harassment in the early game. Later, he took advantage of poor positioning, when Ryung sieged his full army of tanks against Maru’s highly mobile composition. This allowed Maru to freely doom drop into Ryung’s main, dealing crippling damage that would spiral the game into Maru’s favor.

The final game on Newkirk was perhaps the best game of the week. Maru was once again in total control by virtue of his multi-pronged aggression. Game 4 was over if not for Ryung’s patience to acknowledge his desperate position, hiding the lion’s share of his army to wipe out Maru’s tanks as he moved up his siege line.

Ryung advanced into the semifinals, 3-1.

Fun fact: Whoever won the Reaper fights at the start of every match, went on to win the game.

Balance Team Community Feedback

The changes on the test map are in the final stages and will go live in a future patch if no further issues come up. Reapers in TvZ are now being looked at, and changes to KD8 charge are on the table. Changes currently on the table include increasing the ability cooldown or removing its damage to structures.

Changes currently on the Test Map that may go live sometime in the future are listed below.